Saturday, April 30, 2011

Bank Holiday Weekend with Ian and Sharon

The day began early – earlier than planned – Neil rang to say that the M11 was closed in both directions, so we left around 7.30. Lee is cat-sitting for us and looking after the numerous ironing duties – thanks Lee!

The plan was to drop into Mum’s, meet Neil there (to give him our redundant pressure washer) and then head off towards Shoreham Airport to meet Ian and Sharon there for lunch.

The problem with the M11 was that there had been an horrendous crash where a lorry had ploughed into a coach that was parked on the hard shoulder. They had closed the motorway in both directions – and it was to remain that way for most of the day. We therefore used the A1, and although it was a longer route, we arrived at Mum’s in good time.

Neil had already arrived and Mum was waiting in the conservatory. It was then that we learned that Debbie’s Dad had passed-away last night after a long illness.

We headed up to Mum’s flat, caught up with bits and pieces over a cuppa and then headed off south.

We arrived at the Airport just before 12 – the car averaged 40mpg – and after a quick de-bugging of the windscreen, we headed inside to get a table. It was a lovely warm day and the forecast is for the same tomorrow. It’s a very popular place for lunch – not surprising really, good quality food at very low prices!. Ian and Sharon arrived not long after. Initially, we sat inside as it can be a bit windy out near the runway, but we eventually braved it and it wasn’t too bad. We had originally planned to go to Shoreham village for a look round, but instead we headed for Worthing town. After a bit of confusion with finding the flat car-park that we always use (I thought I’d transferred the location from the Mondeo to the Insignia’s sat nav, but we ended up in completely the wrong place), we eventually arrived in the right place.

We had a quick look round the shops and then headed for Beale’s department store for a pit-stop. It was all a bit lack-lustre there, and we didn’t stay long.

We picked-up Ian and Sharon at theirs just before 6.45 and took the short drive to the sea-front. The restaurant area was already busy and it took us a couple of circuits to eventually find a parking-space (I’m still avoiding multi-storey car-parks in case I dink the alloys!). We were given a warm welcome on arrival and were soon perusing the menu. After some indecision, we settled for a mix of hot and cold starters which we shared and then did our own thing for the mains. Ann had Moussaka, Sharon - salmon, Ian – the mixed grill and I tried the Turkish Meatballs. All-in-all, it was a fantastic meal, and predictably, we were all completely stuffed by the end – but some of us did manage a dessert! A nice touch at the end was that the waitress had over heard us talking about Sharon’s birthday, and delivered us a dessert with a few candles in the top. The accompanying sparklers set off the smoke detector and they were quickly taken outside!!

We waddled back to the car, dropped Ian and Sharon off along the way at theirs and headed back to the hotel.

On arrival, we noticed that the hotel was covered in kids – and we do mean ‘covered’ – dozens of the little angels. That now explains why the hotel had called us last week. They’d noticed that we were child-free and wanted to alert us to the prospect of some potential noise at the hotel. Top marks, Premier Inn!!

Actually a herd of elephants could have been staying here, and we wouldn’t have heard a thing! I think we got off to sleep as soon as our head touched the pillows!!